FREE ESSAY ON THE MALTESE FALCON

THE MALTESE FALCON

Dashiell Hammett's San Francisco:
A Unique Setting in the Changing World of Early 20th Century Detective Fiction
The Pacific coast port city of San Francisco, California provides a distinctively
mysterious backdrop in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Unlike many other detective
stories that are anchored in well-known metropolises such as Los Angeles or New York
City, Hammett opted to place the events of his text in the lesser-known, yet similarly
exotic cultural confines of San Francisco. Hammett used his own intricate knowledge of
the San Francisco Bay Area - coupled with details collected during a stint as a detective
for the now defunct Pinkerton Agency - to craft a distinctive brand of detective fiction
that thrived on such an original setting (Paul 93). By examining the setting of 1920's
San Francisco in The Maltese Falcon, it becomes apparent that one of Hammett's literary
strengths was his exceptional ability to intertwine non-fictional places with a fictional
plot and characters in order to produce a logical and exceedingly believable detective
mystery.
Dashiell Hammett called the San Francisco area home from 1920 until 1936. For a portion
of those fourteen years, he shared an apartment on Eddy Street with his first wife
Josephine Dolan. This apartment was located very near the San Francisco Public Library on
Larkin Street where in 1921 Hammett first conceived the idea of his writing detective
fiction. San Francisco historian and author Don Freeman explains: 
In the library he would read the magazines and the books and one day after reading
several detective yarns he said, 'I can do that.' The truth is, he could. And he did. He
wrote for Black Mask, a pulp detective magazine, and then as his skills increased he
began to write novels. It was in this library that Dashiell Hammett saw his future. (79)
Hammett contributed stories to Black Mask for ten years until The Maltese Falcon gained
public and literary acclaim. Many of the stories that Hammett penned for Black Mask were
set in San Francisco, as the city provided him with a unique atmosphere in which to
observe and record different cultures, norms, and fads. In the 1920's, San Francisco was
thought of as an exotic melting pot of culture that was rivaled only by its eastern
cultural counterpart of New York City. Therefore, it is no surprise that Hammett used San
Francisco as the setting of The Maltese Falcon to further illustrate the exotic and
striking nature of the plot and characters within the text (Dumenil 211). 
Since the dawn of modern American detective fiction, many mystery writers have chosen
metropolitan cities with high incidences of murder and theft as the setting for their
stories. When the public is informed about some heinous crime committed in these
non-fictional urban settings, it makes the author's fictional setting and plot seem all
the more realistic (Baker & Nietzel 15). The plot of The Maltese Falcon would not be
nearly as believable if it were set in Omaha, since people do not automatically associate
crime with the Nebraska town. Incidentally, several 1920's and 1930's writers became
linked to the cities in which their stories were set. For example, Raymond Chandler
became synonymous with detective fiction that was based in or near Los Angeles, and
Fredric Brown's work was linked to Al Capone's hometown of Chicago (Baker & Nietzel 36).
Likewise, Hammett used the city of San Francisco - and all of the vast scenery and
culture that it provided - as his own personal writing territory for The Maltese Falcon.
Up until the 1920's very few writers had based their text in San Francisco: Thus,
Hammett's use of the Bay City as a setting added an original variation to the already
changing face of twentieth century American detective stories.
The Maltese Falcon begins in a sparsely furnished, three-room office on Sutter Street in
the Kearney section of San Francisco. It is in this office that the reader is first
introduced to private detective Sam Spade, a character loosely based on Hammett's own
experiences as a private eye. Like many writers before him, Hammett integrated his own
personal observations and experiences into his stories. Therefore, one may assume that
Hammett was a student of his San Francisco surroundings at all times. Hammett initiates
Spade's first meeting with Brigid O' Shaughnessy by offering a description of Spade's
office: "A buff curtained window, eight or ten inches open, let in from the court a
current of air faintly scented with ammonia. The ashes on the desk twitched and crawled
in the current" (4). This passage demonstrates Hammett's ability to reveal the setting to
the reader without being overly presumptuous about it: furthermore, it creates a visual
image of a windy city located on the water without ever mentioning a body of water or the
wind. The phrase, "air faintly scented with ammonia" informs the reader that the story's
setting is near a body of water, as an ammonia smell indicates nearby salt water.
Hammett's simple, but intricate description of the weather and smell of San Francisco
denotes just how well Hammett knew this city. 
Chapter Two begins with Spade's discovery that his partner, Miles Archer, has been
murdered. Spade is notified about the death by telephone in the middle of the night. He
quickly gets dressed and calls a taxicab to transport him to the crime scene. As Spade
arrives, Hammett writes: "Where Bush Street roofed Stockton before slipping downhill to
Chinatown, Spade paid his fare and left the taxicab. San Francisco's night-fog, thin,
clammy, and penetrant blurred the street" (12). Here, Hammett's flawless description of a
non-fictional setting, coupled with fictional circumstances, adds to the realism of the
text. He pinpoints a definite location in San Francisco and attaches to it the eerie
quality that a late night fog brings. Moreover, the foggy San Francisco night foreshadows
the complex mystery that will surround Archer's death and the location of the maltese
falcon. Hammett makes it apparent that Spade's job is to cut through the fog that
surrounds the mystery and solve the case at all costs.
The use of actual San Francisco street names, hotels, and restaurants in The Maltese
Falcon plays an essential role in the development of the story (Freeman 78). Numerous
street names including Geary, Market, Sutter, and Bush appear frequently in the text as a
frame of reference for the reader. If the reader wished to do so, he or she could
actually map Spade's routes around the city as he attempts to solve his case. By using
realistic locations and places in the text, Hammett was able to present a cohesive
picture of the setting that surrounded the plot (Paul 244). If Hammett was ever unsure
about how he wanted to describe some aspect of the setting, he merely had to walk outside
and observe the environment around him. Hammett used his own real-life setting in San
Francisco as a model for The Maltese Falcon and continued to do so afterwards in his
other works of detective fiction
Dashiell Hammett's use of setting was not contrived in The Maltese Falcon; it flowed into
his work asserting itself when called upon to help mold an interesting atmosphere. It
should be noted that while most critics are complementary of Hammett's detail to setting,
many feel that his most obvious genius rests in his ability to craft meticulously
realistic characters and plots. However, assuming that Hammett truly studied and observed
San Francisco in his daily life, it would seem that these characters and plots in many
ways were a direct product of the San Francisco setting and culture that existed in the
1920's. 
Bibliography
Works Cited
Baker, Robert and Nietzel, Michael T. Private Eyes: One Hundred and One
Knights. Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Press, 1985.
Dumenil, Lynn. Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920's.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.
Freeman, Don. "Sam Spade's San Francisco." Saturday Evening Post.
264(1992): 78-82. 
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.
Paul, Robert S. Whatever Happened to Sherlock Holmes: Detective Fiction,
Popular Theology, and Society. Southern Illinois University Press, 1991.